


aster bloom

by creabimus



Category: The Young Elites Series - Marie Lu
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-10
Updated: 2016-06-10
Packaged: 2018-07-14 07:50:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7161203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creabimus/pseuds/creabimus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Before and after the Star Thief falls.</p>
            </blockquote>





	aster bloom

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted to my tumblr

Gemma Salvatore is not a fool. She knows Adelina has become twisted, someone so unlike the girl Gemma met who could barely wield her illusions. White Wolf. She never realized how fitting Adelina’s Dagger name would be until now, yet not even Gemma can control the minds of ferocious animals starved for food.

Still.

The world does not turn bitter yet, and Gemma looks back at the girl whose smiles were focused on the sharp angles of Enzo’s face and whose face once softened around them. Adelina’s ambition was matched only by Enzo’s - and, perhaps Gemma should have known how Adelina would spiral out of control. She was nothing like Raffaele - calming in the wake of Enzo’s fiery devotion - and too greedy, too swallowed by her own pain.

But, Gemma sees only the girl whose presence she swore she felt under the bridge; she sees barely a shock of silver hair Gemma found herself enamored with; she sees something angry and tortured and broken that her powers can only coax out of animals.

Does her alignment towards Joy still mean something? How could one ever find joy in powers such as hers? A false joy she whispers through murmurs is hardly a fitting replacement towards whatever it fights.

She coaxes her balira upwards into the sky, and later she remembers herself regretting this, as her lips work themselves into a frown. She would smile at Adelina, alone and friendless in the beginning, with the hope they would become friends. That Gemma could extend her hand towards Adelina and teach her the warmth of the sun she had been denied.

You are the Star Thief, Raffaele had once said, because your eyes twinkle with the beauty of the stars. Gemma Salvatore, he had smiled, you are better than all of us.

Adelina’s balira stops, and Gemma swears she catches Adelina’s gaze when she looks back at her. The crossbow in her lap weighs her down with the force of what she tried to do. What she wanted to do for the barest of seconds.

She feels the balira’s mind burn beside her own before the pain scatters across her body.

 

–

 

(Star Thief, because she is as bright as the stars themselves. Or, so she imagines she would appear falling downdowndown.)

 

–

 

 _“Adelina_ is _nice, Lucent. I can prove it to you.”_

_“No one with that power is trustworthy, Gemma. You try too hard to see the good in people so you’re blinded to who they really are.”_

_“Just give her a chance. If I’m wrong, I’ll make it up to you.”_


End file.
